{"id":774,"date":"2014-07-03T16:51:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T20:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2014-07-04T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T14:00:00","slug":"rabbi-zalman-schachter-shalomi-jewish-with-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=774","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi – Jewish, With Feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rabbi<\/a>
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My copy of Jewish With Feeling <\/em><\/a>wasn\u2019t on the shelf.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d I said to my husband, Ralf, \u201cI remember. I lent it to someone. Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish With Feeling<\/em> is one of many books by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi <\/a>on my shelf. It is also a book I lend out more often than any other in our library. It is a book anyone can read \u2013 without fear of knowing too little; without fear of knowing too much.<\/p>\n

It is a reflection of Zalman\u2019s spirit: Light-filled, opening, welcoming, rich.<\/p>\n

Reb Zalman died this morning, just weeks away from his ninetieth birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

He was the founder of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal<\/a>. The ALEPH seminary has ordained over 80 religious leaders. I am among them. I learned, at this seminary, the difference between rebbe and rabbi; I learned to be the former even when I was called the latter.<\/p>\n

He was friends with countless other religious leaders across the world. One was the Dalai Lama. Their encounters were described in Rodger Kamenetz’ book The Jew in the Lotus<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I read the book well before discovering Jewish Renewal. I very much liked the Reb Zalman I met there \u2013 years before I got to like him in person.<\/p>\n

Reb Zalman reached out to the disaffected, to the secular Jew, the alienated Jew, to any Jew. You only needed to stop for a moment and he could hold you with a story \u2013 each blessed with an unforgettable punch line that always, inevitably, elicited a smile, outright laughter, a nod, or a tear.<\/p>\n

This morning I told a friend, \u201cHe gave something to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisdom, first and foremost. I learned from Zalman to put aside the siddur and listen for the prayer that needed to be voiced. I learned, from Reb Zalman, to recover the Jewish practice of spontaneous blessing, though I am certain he would have understood why I so closely observed Christian friends practicing their own take on that art.<\/p>\n

I learned from Reb Zalman that it was the task of the rebbe to look into the soul of a congregant.<\/p>\n

Zalman was a seer of souls. The first time I met him was after he attended a service I co-led in 2005. He remarked on my “singing smile.” Later, that very day, he dedicated one of his books to me, to one\u00a0\u201cwho delights in tefillah.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Of all the facts of my life, this is one that has never failed. Give me any opportunity to sing prayer and I will know God\u2019s presence for the gift it is. Zalman (fore)saw that.<\/p>\n

In his book, Wrapped in Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters, <\/em>Zalman quotes his friend, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, z\u201dl: \u201cHow do you know that you have met your true teacher? Whatever this person teaches you, you knew it all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reb Zalman taught people what they knew all along \u2013 that went for everyone, Jewish or not.<\/p>\n

I teach his work. For me, his most gorgeous teachings were these: Look into the soul before you. Help make our texts speak. Tell our stories and live them in the telling.<\/p>\n

Show others what it is to be Jewish with feeling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reb Zalman died this morning, just weeks away from his ninetieth birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

He was the founder of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The ALEPH seminary has ordained over 80 religious leaders. I am among them. I learned, at this seminary, the difference between rebbe and rabbi; I learned to be the former even when I was called the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[183,181,182],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aleph","tag-jewish-with-feeling","tag-rabbi-zalman-schachter-shalomi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}